Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic The Boy in Black (5/?)

Thanks as always to Carol for all her help!

From Chapter 4

“I wasn't thinking about the Titan thing. I just… I really want the Planet internship. I'm sure you're planning to apply?” I nodded, started to understand where this was going. “I just realized I'm not going to get it,” Lois said quietly before moving through the door of the building.

I placed a hand on her arm. “That's funny,” I said when she turned to look at me. “Cause I thought the same thing when I read your article.”

“No, you didn't,” Lois said, dismissively.

“I did. Really,” I told her. “Your article was so much better written than mine.”

Lois laughed. “So neither of us is going to apply thinking the other is going to win?”

I shrugged. “The thought had occurred to me,” I admitted. “But somehow I don't see you not applying.”

Lois smiled. “Me, neither. Now I just know I need to step up my game.” With another grin at me, she turned and entered the classroom.

Chapter 5

“You know what,” I screamed, “you were right. I do find you difficult to deal with!”

It was all of two hours after our perfectly pleasant walk across campus. How we had gone from the point where we could actually be nice to each other to this, I don't know. Only Lois Lane, though. That I knew. No one else had ever infuriated me like this before.

I knew what Steve would say. He'd say it was sexual tension. In fact, after witnessing one of our previous arguments, he had said just that. But Steve was always thinking about sex, so that wasn't a surprise at all. And I'm sorry, but this thing Lois and I had going where we screamed and yelled at each other was about as far away from sexual tension as you can get.

I remember the few times I let myself get a little carried away with Lana on a date, and it felt nothing like this. Oh sure, both had my adrenaline pumping, but that was in a good way. Not in a "I want to tear your head off with my bare hands' kind of way.

“Well, you know what?” Lois screamed back. “I don't care! You find me difficult to deal with as I'm not like the Daisys and Sally Maes back home on farm land. If you're going to make it in the big city, you better learn to deal with real women!”

With that, Lois spun on her heel. I absently wondered just how often I had watched her walk away from me after a fight. We had only known each other for a month and this was already the way I was most familiar with her.

With a sigh, I realized I didn't really care. If Lois could get this worked up over a comment on whether or not it was important for reporters to understand grammar rules or whether that was what editors were for, that was her problem. For reference, I thought it was important; Lois apparently thought she was meant for bigger things. I smiled a bit as I wondered what Perry White would think of that. Did he really want to spend all afternoon proofreading his reporters' copy? Maybe the Planet internship wasn't a lost cause after all.

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I took care when opening the door to my room. Given my special whatever-I-wanted-to-call-thems, I couldn't exactly slam the door the way everyone else did when they were angry. I had learned that the hard way after what felt like a particularly bad fight with Pete when we were eleven. The front door had swung open with a bang as I had intended, but then kept going, wiping out a plant, a shelf Mom kept in the entranceway, and a good deal of the banister on the staircase. I was sure Mom and Dad were going to ground me and stop my allowance until I paid for all the damage – which at the time I assumed was at least $15 – and had still been standing there in shock when my mother came in from the kitchen to see what all the noise was.

I still have no idea what she was thinking when she saw what I had done, but my punishment wasn't nearly as bad as I had expected. I was told I couldn't watch television for a week, but compared to what I expected, this seemed like a pretty paltry punishment and I didn't question it. Mom and Dad fixed up the entryway within a few weeks and it wasn't until a few years ago that I realized how much it must have actually cost to get all that work done.

Luckily, while I didn't understand why, it was enough of a lesson that I never slammed a door shut again and a year or so later I learned a similar lesson with throwing my backpack on the floor when I was angry. All in all, by the time I was fifteen, I had realized it was not okay for me to use excessive force to blow off anger. Now what I did was take to the sky for awhile. I'm not sure if it was nearly as satisfying, but it did have the desired effect. A few minutes of floating among the stars, and it was hard not to realize how inconsequential my problems were.

So, that was my plan now. I wasn't sure why this stupid fight with Lois was getting to me so much, but something about how quickly we went from getting along to screaming at each other bothered me.

“Hey,” Steve said when I came in.

I glanced at him, not really interested in talking, but not wanting to be rude. “Hi,” I said quietly as I dropped my book bag to the floor. “I'm headed out for a while,” I added, in an effort to forestall other conversation.

“Cool,” Steve nodded before looking back at the textbook open in front of him.

Just as I was about to leave though, he called out again, “Hey, Clark, a bunch of us are heading over to the Sig house tonight. They're having their first kegger of the year that's open to non-pledges. You interested?”

“Sure,” I said, not really thinking. I just wanted to get out of here.

“I think we're meeting everyone at nine to head over there. Josh insists that we shouldn't let the girls go alone to a frat house. Do-gooder,” he said, but I noticed he said it with a smile, and I decided Steve wasn't really so bad.

I nodded. “Probably a good idea. I'll be back long before then.”

I wondered where to go to take off as I left the dorm room. It was only three, which meant there wouldn't be too many quiet areas on campus now. I imagined even the math geeks were in the math building in the middle of the afternoon. In fact, maybe they were more likely to be there than other majors in their academic buildings.

Maybe now was the time to explore Metropolis itself? I wasn't sure. The truth was Met U wasn't in the best part of town, but we were pretty sheltered from that aspect of the city. Not that I was really worried, but all I really wanted was to take a short flight and cool down. I wasn't sure I was ready to give myself a lesson in city crime.

Looking around campus, though, I realized I didn't have much choice. It was only late September and the weather was still beautiful. As a result, there wasn't an area of campus visible that didn't have students nearby. With a sigh, I headed through the gates that would take me to the city beyond.

My first thought was that this was silly. Metropolis wasn't different than any other city I'd been in. But that wasn't really fair. I didn't really travel the world looking for ways to help. I went when I heard about something major going on. In reality, major catastrophes weren't common in any one place, including the seedier sections of main cities. So, while I had been to other large cities before, I hadn't really roamed the streets like this, looking for an alleyway from which to take off.

Still, to some degree, my initial assessment felt right. The area outside of campus didn't seem particularly unsafe. Maybe because of it's proximity to the school, it was full of students talking, and aside from the cars, didn't seem much different than inside. There were stores on either side of the street and it was a busy area, but it really just looked like a city to me and nothing particularly unsavory about it struck me. With a sigh of relief, I started walking north a little to get out of the crowds of students hanging around the underground station.

Within a few blocks, I found what I was looking for – a small alley far enough away from the crowds for me to take off unnoticed if I went quickly. I checked it out carefully, but there didn't seem to be anyone hiding back there. I guess even the homeless people find someplace to be during the day.

With another glance around to make sure no one was watching me suspiciously, I darted inside and took off with a burst of speed that would make it hard to see me if you weren't looking.

The truth was that by the time I did this, I had cooled off from my argument with Lois. Still, flying was one of my favorite pastimes, the special skill or whatever that I enjoyed the most. So, I didn't see any reason to cut my flight short just because I was no longer fantasizing about slamming doors or ripping the heads off pretty brunettes.

So, I took a somewhat leisurely flight around the northeastern US and Canada. I turned off my super-hearing as I didn't want to hear about any major disasters that might require the Boy in Black. It was a trick that I had found incredibly useful since I got to school.

I had promised my parents that my Boy in Black thing wouldn't interrupt my studies and that meant I wasn't to leave class to go anywhere, nor was I to travel if I had studying to do. Dad had been convinced that this was going to be harder for me than I thought – that there would be more background noise in the city than I was used to and more people calling for help from petty crime.

I had dismissed his fears when he made them, but promised I'd "turn-off' my hearing anyway, a skill I had already mastered after the first time I nearly blew my ear drum when the bell rang back in high school. I was glad I had made that agreement now as Dad was right. Things were different here. I think I only had vague notions of what city-life would be like before, and I imagined a busier Smallville. But Metropolis was more than that – it may as well have been a different planet than Smallville for all the similarities it had. Within the first day, when I hadn't turned the hearing thing off, I had realized how little I knew about large cities from my brief visits to them before.

I circled around Metropolis one more time before landing, taking in my new home. It was almost pretty from here – all the tall buildings and the people walking around. When I turned my hearing on, though, things were different. There were lots of people talking, of course, but the biggest thing was the car horns honking. No one ever felt the need to beep their horn in Smallville, but it seemed to be a regular part of driving in Metropolis, particularly for the taxi cab drivers.

I smiled a little at the thought of how busy everyone was here, how they couldn't wait another second to get where ever they were going, before looking for a good place to land near campus. It took me a minute to orient myself, and just before I had found a good location, I saw something that looked weird to me. Was that teenager holding a knife on that boy? He couldn't have been more than six or seven.

Without thought, I landed in the nearest alley, but it turned out to be empty anyway. I took off in the direction I thought the boys had been at a run – just slow enough to pass for human. I reached them in a matter of seconds and it was just as I had thought.

The teenager was at least sixteen or seventeen – not much younger than me – and he had a knife trained on a boy that was barely old enough to have finished kindergarten. “Hey,” I called as I approached them, trying to pretend I hadn't noticed the knife.

“Go away, man. This is none of your business,” the teenager said, turning to glare at me. I saw the boy's eyes flicker to the knife as it twitched closer to him with the teenager's movement.

“Maybe I can help,” I said. I could hear my voice shaking slightly, but I hoped neither of them could. I had never done anything like this before. What would I do if the teenager tried to stab me?

I shook my head. I'd deal with that if it happened. Better me than the child.

“I said "Go away'!” the teenager repeated, sounding angry now. The knife twitched again and the little boy flinched. I closed my eyes to calm myself down and finally identified the acrid smell I had noticed since I approached them. It was urine. Of course, it was. The small boy had probably wet his pants long before I arrived. It's what I would have done if someone had a knife on me and I didn't happen to be invulnerable.

“I just want to help,” I said, keeping my voice soothing and holding my hands up to show I didn't have any weapons on me. “What is it you want from him?” I asked, pointing a thumb at the boy.

“Nothin',” the teenager said. “I don't want nothin' from him. I want you to go away.”

I was within a step of them now and I wondered what would happen if I reached out and grabbed the knife by the blade. My dad would kill me, though. That wasn't an option.

“I don't have it,” the boy said suddenly, tears I hadn't noticed before clear on his cheeks.

“What don't you have?” I asked him.

“GO AWAY!” the teenager nearly roared at me.

“Maybe I can give you whatever he owes you,” I said.

“Oh yeah?” the teenager asked. “You have two grand?”

I felt my eyes widen. Two grand? What could this six year old owe two grand for?

“I didn't think so,” the teenager said with a smirk.

“He really owes you two grand?” I asked, unable to stop myself.

“Yeah. That was prime stuff I gave him,” the teenager responded, sounding almost pompous.

“What kind of stuff?” I asked, confused.

“It was just weed,” the six year old whined. “And it wasn't that good.”

Weed? As in marijuana? I could almost hear Lois laughing at my naïveté, but I had never imagined… Really? At his age?

“You still owe me,” the teenager said. “I told you that was the last time I was going to cover for you.”

At that moment, we could all hear the whine of police sirens, and almost so fast I couldn't see it, the teenager had pocketed his knife. “Next time, you better be able to pay up,” he hissed at the boy before he ran past me.

I wasn't sure what to do or what to say. Some sort of "Just Say No' message? Ask how old he was? Where his parents were? It didn't matter, before I could decide what to say, the boy was walking past me. I placed a hand on his arm to stop him, but before I could speak, he did. “You don't know what it's like,” he said to me, his voice steely and strong for someone who was still walking around with urine soaked pants. I opened my mouth to reply, although I still had no idea what to say, but he cut me off. “It's none of your business,” he said, repeating the teen's words from earlier.

************************

I was still lost in thought when I got back onto campus. Maybe that kid was older than six, but he couldn't have been old enough… I smiled slightly as I thought of the after school specials Rachel used to like to watch when we were in junior high. We used to hang out at her place as it was one of the few places we were allowed to hang out without adult supervision. I think our parents thought that since her dad was the sheriff, we couldn't get into too much trouble over there. I'm not sure we would have anyway, but this meant we watched a lot of after school specials.

They had always seemed so unrealistic to me – kids our age doing drugs? Wasn't that something older kids did? Or seventh grade girls getting pressured into having sex? In Smallville, having a kissed a girl was really pushing limits in seventh grade. But maybe this was just another way that Smallville and Metropolis were different?

I didn't know, but it was startling to me that someone so young could already owe that much money for drugs.

“Yo, Clark. You ready?” I heard Josh's voice just before I opened the door to the dorm. I looked over and realized my friends were standing there all watching me.

“Yeah, you're late, man,” Steve said. For a moment I had no idea what he was talking about, but then I noticed that Lois, Maddie, and Alicia were all wearing make-up which was unusual for them. The frat party Steve had mentioned earlier. I had forgotten all about it.

It was really too bad. I would have liked to have gotten drunk tonight – block what had just happened with those boys out of my head, but I knew from a graduation party that alcohol didn't affect me at all.

With a sigh, I walked over to my friends. As I got closer, I realized there was a new girl there – a pretty, dark skinned girl with bright eyes was standing near Lois. Lois was clearly not over our argument from earlier as she barely glanced at me as she murmured, “This is my roommate, Star. Star, Clark.”

I smiled at Star and shook her hand, deciding immediately that I liked her. She had an open, engaging smile.

I glanced quickly at Lois, noticing that she looked even prettier than normal in her burgundy blouse and jeans, but then looked away. I was over our argument from earlier, but wasn't ready for another yet.

As we walked over to the frat house, I found myself walking next to Maddie. Maddie, like Lois, was dressed somewhat casually in a dark blue blouse and a pair of khakis, but the blue really brought out her eyes and with the addition of make-up and a barrette to hold back her somewhat frizzy brown hair, she, too, looked even prettier than normal.

“Are you looking forward to the party?” I asked her as we walked.

She shrugged. “I'm not sure frat parties are really my thing,” she said. “But Steve really wanted to go and then Lois and Alicia were really into it…”

I smiled. “I know what you mean. It doesn't sound like my idea of a good time either,” I told her.

She smiled at me as we reached the frat house. The party was audible from a block away, even without super hearing, and as we got closer, we could see that the house was packed with people.

“Yeah, this looks like fun,” Maddie said to me quietly, the sarcasm in her voice clear.

I laughed. “Well, if it's really bad, I promise to walk you home early,” I told her before we got close enough to the party that it became difficult to talk.

She smiled at me in thanks and we pushed our way in.